His Kid
by gamma1243
Summary: Tony Stark is a lot of things, but a father is one he never thought he would be. One-Shot about Tony's thought process the night after Steve, Natasha, and Scott come by. [SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME]


**His Kid**

Tony Stark never imagined himself being a father.

He vowed to himself that he would never have kids when he was in his teenage years, especially after his parents died. He wouldn't…he…couldn't. He could never repeat the mistakes his dad had made, and he would never let himself leave a child-especially _HIS_ own child alone without a father to raise them.

No…it just wasn't meant to be.

Then he'd met Pepper Pots.

She changed his life. She…she was his life. Without Pepper, Tony would have lost himself. He didn't like thinking about himself without her, and the many times he'd come close to losing her were among his worst memories.

The more he and Pepper grew close the more he knew he couldn't live without her. It was always her he came back to. He wanted a life with her…

…but still didn't want kids.

Then he found Peter Parker.

At first, Tony found the kid endearing, cute even, but he thought of himself as doing the kid more of a service than anything else. He wasn't looking for a protégée, rather He'd just been keeping tabs on anyone showing signs of being "super," for lack of a better term. Ever since Hydra showed up infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D, he had hoped to find any of these special people and get them with their side before they or someone else worse got them. Spider-Man kept popping up. It wasn't hard for the billionaire to discover the web-slinger's slightly less talkative alter-ego.

It had been a simple to-do list:

find the kid

help the kid with some improvements

let the kid do his own thing and never talk to him again (unless something came up of course)

In reality…it hadn't been so simple.

Peter was a good kid, sometimes painfully good, and gosh Tony had seen so much of himself in him that it had almost scared him. Something about that kid had made him mentally tear up his list and burn it before he had even left the airport in Germany. In the coming months, Tony actually found himself enjoying hearing about Peter's part-time adventures as Spider-Man. It was a good distraction from...everything. He always let a slight smile cross his face when he would receive a notification from Happy at night, who would forward him the lengthy voicemails the kid left, detailing every inch of crime (or just people needing help) that had been addressed in Queens.

Somehow the kid snuck his way into a part of Tony's heart. Of course, he never told a soul about it, but he knew that people started to notice his fondness of the kid. Happy, being the one who dealt with Peter the most, especially noticed when Tony would ask about him or send him invites to events. Pepper noticed too. After all, Tony never put much effort towards anyone aside from his closest friends. She thought Peter brought out a warm side of Tony that he rarely showed.

Then he'd had that dream. The one where he and Pepper had a child. He couldn't believe it. But maybe now he wanted it to be more than a dream…maybe now he could actually see it being real.

They'd named their child Morgan, after Pepper's uncle…the extremely eccentric one (of all people) which Tony had found fitting if not slightly amusing. After Pepper had accepted his proposal and their wedding was on date, he thought a family would be a logical future step.

Well, except that Pepper said the Iron Man stood in the way. "_If you wanted to have kids, you wouldn't have that" She'd said as she tapped on his arc-reactor. "You don't need that."_

As much as Iron Man was part of who he was, a father wouldn't be able to be both.

Pepper was absolutely right.

Terribly right.

Horrifically right.

Her words echoed in his head as Peter's pleas for Tony to save him slammed into his heart. There, millions of galaxies away from New York, Peter laid in Tony's arms dying…and he couldn't do a thing about it.

_"Mr. Stark…I don't feel so good…I don't know what's happening. Please…I don't wanna go…I don't wanna go…" _

The kid shouldn't have been there.

He was there because of Tony.

And then he was gone in a blink of an eye.

They were all gone, and Tony was…alone.

The next few weeks in space were some of the darkest days of Tony's life. Complete utter failure plus the maddening uncertainty of knowing if anyone Tony held dear had survived the snap almost drove him to the edge. He didn't even know if Pepper was alive even as he raced back to her. The guilt destroyed him.

But somehow (Miraculously? Magically? He didn't even know what was real anymore) he'd made it back to Earth, back to…her.

He and Pepper were lucky. There was nothing else to explain it. Others had been left with no one. Even his and Pepper's losses were substantial.

He grieved the loss of Peter for the first year, and then the second.

And then his dream became a reality.

Morgan Stark was born a perfect baby girl.

She was everything to Tony. He swore he would never let anything hurt her.

Maybe it was the fact that he'd lost Peter in such a horrible way, or maybe it was just a father's instinct, but Tony knew if anything came close to taking his second child away he would rip it apart with his bare hands.

He refused to lose another child.

Pepper never questioned the picture he had framed of him and Peter. She knew. She understood. In fact, it had been her suggestion that Tony move the photo from its original place in his lab to a more prominent place above the sink in their house.

He never stopped feeling the loss of Peter.

…and he couldn't help but think that the first few years of Morgan's life. One kid doesn't replace another.

It was no accident that Tony called him "the kid" _"…my kid."_

So when Steve and Natasha showed up (and that guy Scott..?), completely out of the blue, offering everyone _offering Peter_ a second chance Tony felt his emotions split painfully.

He so wanted what they said to be true. He wanted a way to get Peter back, and he would do anything to make that happen…

…well, almost anything. He would never risk losing Pepper or Morgan…even if it meant returning everyone else.

Maybe it was selfish, but he'd lost enough.

All these thoughts cycled through his head over and over as he washed dishes that night. A solution to the "time heist" nagged at the back of his mind, but he continued to shoot it down. As much as Tony Stark loved a challenge, he declined solving this one. Lost in thought, Tony accidentally sprayed much of the wall, shelf, and counter with water as he concluded his washing. Sighing, he grabbed a towel and started drying off each item on the shelf. He stopped when he got to the picture of him and Peter.

Grabbing the picture down, he stared at it. He remembered when they took the picture Peter had been surprised when Tony stuck his hand making bunny ears behind Peter's head. The kid had gladly joined in, making the same gesture behind Tony's head. Neither of them noticed the incorrectly held internship certificate.

Tony couldn't even bring himself to smile at the fond memory.

Not tonight.

Gosh, what he wouldn't give right now to reach into the past back to that day and wrap Peter in his arms and never let go.

Maybe it was worth a shot.

He owed it to Peter.

Maybe they could save everyone without losing the last five years.

No…

No maybe…

He would save everyone.

He was Iron Man.

This would work.

And so Tony got to work.


End file.
